A key element in the development of firearms for warfare, public safety and personal defense is cartridge capacity. The number of times a gun can be fired without reloading is a critical measurement of it's effectiveness. The single shot muzzle loaders of the 18th century and the famous "six-shooter" revolver of the 19th century have been replaced by the 30+ shot magazine fed automatic rifles in current use. Our above identified related patent application describes a 100 round magazine which has possibly the largest capacity for a personal weapon yet designed. Although loading the magazines of modern weapons is a much more efficient process than that of their predecessors, loading a large number of cartridges is still a tedious process, especially when as many as 100 rounds must be loaded into a magazine.
This invention describes a loader with which a large number of cartridges can be quickly and easily transferred from their factory shipping containers into an appropriately configured firearm magazine. The preferred embodiment described herein transfers 50 cartridges from their container into a magazine in 15 seconds without the operator even handling the individual cartridges. The present invention is a significant improvement in the art of firearm magazine speed loaders, and is particularly well suited for use with the extremely large capacity magazine described in our above identified patent application.